Anti virus

[RA Dunk]

I've been using MSE for years and scanning the PC every other week using Sophos virus removal and Malwarebytes for years and never had a single virus trojan or anything else which could be nasty.

One other thing I haven't mentioned is a bit of common sense while surfing the net is better than any of the above.

 

[shenion]

Norton is the one that seems to be pushed the most but my experience of it is that it's one of the worst, I won't ever use it again.

Yes, I fixed 3 Win8 PC's over the last few months with Norton/Symantec on them. They were full of viruses because Symantec disables all security if you don't pay the fee.

Fix is easy; Uninstall Symantec and the windows own malware tools immediately pops up and fixes most of the problems. Malwarebytes scan fixes the rest.

The other things I have had to fix is Symantec making their PC unbootable.

I disabled all security, MSE, firewall and UAC in windows years ago. It gets in the way of being a developer. I have had no viruses. Every once in a while I run Malwarebytes but it finds nothing. I run the Microsoft Security Essentials every once in a while, and it finds nothing.

The biggest tool for preventing malware is on the other side of the keyboard from the PC. I never run IE, I am careful at where I go (and FF tells me of phish and malware sites.) I don't run outlook. My mail host scans for viruses before I get the emails anyway. I ignore any web site that says "you have a virus, or your PC is too slow, click here" That is the biggest way malware and adware get installed.

PC's I work on, I just enable Microsoft Security Essentials and instal Firefox. I tell them to stop using IE. They don't come back with more problems.

 

[rtcosic]

Well, I downloaded and ran Avira. It found 3 nasties and all seems well again.

thanks all.

 

[rtcosic]

Avira kept reporting presence of BOO/Cidox.B and could not remove it.

After much (very slow) Googling, I went here:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/532188/avira-found-boocidoxb-on-my-computer/

followed the instructions and Avira no longer reports its presence.

Methinks await offsprings' next visit, reformat C drive and reload a clean OS install?

(and no banking or internet purchases until then!)

 

[Wallace]

One other thing I haven't mentioned is a bit of common sense while surfing the net is better than any of the above.

Thats easier said than done these days, using AVG I was hit with a drive by virus that took some shaking off after looking for some VW Polo information on a forum like ours. Had it been Lusty Linda's Naughty Knicker Site or similar I could understand it.

RKill is another little programme I have had success with. A clean install is always nice as you suddenly find out how fast your PC is with a basic operating system on there! Then you watch it get slower as you add all the card drivers and boot devices.

 

[Robotstar5]

Thats easier said than done these days, using AVG I was hit with a drive by virus that took some shaking off after looking for some VW Polo information on a forum like ours. Had it been Lusty Linda's Naughty Knicker Site or similar I could understand it.

Have you got a link to it